Table 5. SWIFT Fatalities Detail:

SWIFT draws together data on the work related fatalities notified to WorkSafe and approved ACC work related fatality claims (which can include those from Maritime New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Authority, and New Zealand Police jurisdictions that resulted in ACC fatal claims). It excludes fatalities involving bystanders, people under the age of 15, gradual process injuries, and work-related disease.

There is a six month lag applied to SWIFT data to allow time for the claim information to stabilise.

SWIFT fatality data will differ from counts of fatalities occurring within WorkSafe's jurisdiction as WorkSafe counts include bystanders and exclude maritime, aviation, and many transport related fatalities.

While SWIFT draws on ACC data, differences in counting criteria mean it may not match ACC figures, and should not be considered official ACC data.

HLFS full-time equivalent employee counts are the sum of the count of all full time workers plus half the count of part time workers.

A SWIFT fatality may have multiple mechanisms of injury.

Other fatalities may not be able to be classified against a mechanism. Therefore, fatalities by mechanism should not be used as an overall count of fatalities.

WorkSafe has changed the way it reports fatalities in the Forestry and Agriculture sectors to align with the Australia and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification. Some fatality data has moved into ‘Forestry Support Services’ and ‘Agriculture and Fishing Support Services’ which will reduce the numbers recorded in the Agriculture and Forestry industries (see AFF2017 variable). Taken overall the sectors’ performances have not changed – the total burden of Forestry and Agriculture fatalities remain unchanged.

Data quality has improved over time so caution is advised when interpreting the data